


Monsterous

by HanaHimus



Category: Persona | Revelations Persona
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Monsters, Could (atm) be read as a 'no Persona' AU or a 'Maki is hospitalized later' AU, Gen, Reiji being too dense to realize his classmates are monsters the fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-06
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2019-05-02 19:01:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14551308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HanaHimus/pseuds/HanaHimus
Summary: Reiji Kido had thought St. Hermelin High School was a normal school when he first transferred in.





	Monsterous

**Author's Note:**

> I think this may be the longest P1 fic I've ever written?? Anyway... I put some notes in the tags, as can be seen, but... Another thing to note is let's say Reiji is kinda dragged into actually sort of interacting with the rest of the cast sooner than in canon bc of monster shenanigans and the like?
> 
> List of monsters @ the end of the chapter. Characters mentioned and not gone into detail about can be whatever you want, probably, or you can ask me and I can assign them a monster fairly quickly, probably?

Reiji Kido had thought St. Hermelin High School was a normal school when he first transferred in. It wasn’t like he had much of a reason to expect things to be anything other than that (past maybe one comment from his mother)… Hell, even when he stood in front of the class, Ms. Saeko telling him to give his introduction, the odd appearance of his classmates didn't phase him. He really just thought they all had unique tastes and choices in fashion like he did…

Hell, even as signs that something was up started building and building… Things just really didn’t connect for him. He just kept finding reasons to not really be all that alarmed by the things he was seeing, no matter how much evidence stacked up.

The first thing that should have really told him something was up was Maki Sonomura. He sat behind her in class and usually ended up near her when they had to go to the art room and the like and, well… The wings on her back had caused him more than a few issues. They either blocked the chalkboard and ended up slapping him in the damn face.

He’d thought they were fake or mechanical or something (they moved so he assumed some sort of prop), but then? When she finally noticed slapping him in the face with one? She said just about the most confusing thing.

“I’m so sorry! I don’t really have control over them…”

Reiji furrowed his brow. “Then why don’t you just take them off?”

“Take them…?” Maki tilted her head to the side and frowned. “I… Don’t think I understand what you mean.”

“You don’t understand what I mean?” Reiji shook his head and put a hand on his hip. “You’re trying to mess with me, aren’t you?”

“No, not at all!” Maki shook her head. “I don’t get it… Did you not pick up on my scent or something…?”

Reiji furrowed his brow, sniffing the air near her a few times. “You smell… Clean? Flowers and fruit shampoos and soaps, probably.”

Maki ran a hand through her hair. “Wow, you got the scents kinda right, but… That’s all you can smell? You must have a weak sense of smell.”

“Most people at my old school would say I can pick up on more scents than others…”

Maki rose an eyebrow. “Is that so…? W-well… Sorry! I’ll do my best to not hit you in the face again!”

And with that, she turned away from him and back to her painting, glancing at him with worry. He really didn’t get why she was acting like that, or why those wings on her back seemed to flitter with nervousness (how she got those to do that, he didn’t know). Well, whatever, they weren’t slapping him in the face anymore, so he would take it.

He’d started to forget about Maki’s wings, chalking it up to her just really liking the mechanical wings or something. He’d heard her mom worked for SEBEC (a fact that had put Reiji off), so maybe her mom got to give her some fancy shit from a business partner… Whatever.

But then things about Yuka started putting him on edge. She was super flirty and at first it hadn’t phased him, some girls (and some guys) were like that (though Yuka seemed to be the only one he ever really noticed)... But things were up with some of the guys.

A lot of guys seemed to trip over themselves to be around her. He wasn’t sure what it was, seeing as kogals never seemed  _ that  _ popular to him, but… A little flirting was enough to have some guys utterly... Seduced.

A few times she’d tried to flirt with him, the few times he hadn’t been fast enough to get out of the school without being stopped, and every time left him more unsettled around her. It was like if she stopped him too much he’d crack and end up like some of those other guys.

So when she stopped him again with the question “Wanna have some fun~?” he knew he needed to get the hell out of there.

“No, I need to get home and…” He looked away from Yuka. “Water the dog.”

“Water the dog…?” Yuka made a face and shook her head. “You don’t water dogs!”

“No, not water like you’d water a plant. L-like I make sure his water bowl is full.” Had to cover for his bad lie about a fake dog. “You know, water the dog.”

“Okay…” Yuka shook her head. “If you don’t wanna have fun, just say so! God, you’re more of a dweeb than I thought…”

“A dweeb…?” Reiji thought for a moment before shaking his head. “Whatever, call me whatever you want to call me, I’m leaving.”

“Fine!” Yuka stuck her tongue out. “It’s your loss, though!”

Reiji shrugged, whatever. As long as he got to step away from Yuka, he was fine with it being a ‘loss.’ It’d still be a win for him, so… He didn’t waste any time turning on his heel and walking away. He didn’t even turn back when Yuka yelled after him in anger… It just wasn’t worth it.

After that, Yuka started to avoid him past maybe sending a few glares at him. It seemed like he’d been put fully into the ‘no contact’ category with people like Kenta, Tsutomu, and Yosuke (though he was sure it was for reasons more similar to the former two, seeing as Yosuke being Chisato’s boyfriend seemed to be the reason for no contact there)... Fine by him, he was already starting to forget about all her flirting…

And then he found himself being growled at by Yukino. He’d been walking along, not really paying attention to where he was going when he stepped on what he’d thought was a fake tail of hers. She’d let out a yelp, standing quickly when he took his foot off, turned to look at him, and growled.

It wasn’t like she was growling out words at first, either. She was full out growling like a dog at him… He’d kinda started thinking she might be into acting like an animal since she seemed like she wore a tail and ears, but this was taking things way too far.

“You need to watch where you’re walking!” The noise finally stopped as Reiji took a step back, Yukino changing to just glaring at him. “Someone like you should know to be careful about stray tails.”

“Careful about…? Look, I’m sorry if that was expensive or something, but it looks fine!” Reiji crossed his arms. “Just clean it.”

“What the hell are you on if you think the issue is money or cost? Just because you don’t walk around like this doesn’t mean you can ignore others’ tails!” Yukino shook her head and Reiji just found himself confused.

“I don’t own a fake tail or anything. Look, I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, but I’m leaving.” Reiji wasn’t going to deal with this, especially not when Yukino was looking at him with confusion. He hadn’t said anything weird, as far as he knew…

He turned on his heel and stormed off, a sound somewhat akin to a growl escaping him now. Yukino didn’t seem to argue, a confused noise that sounded almost like a whine being the only sound of protest she seemed to make. Well, fine. He didn’t get why she was confused, but let her be!

He started avoiding her at that point, finding a way to duck out of the room she was in whenever they weren’t in class. He was afraid she’d give him that confused look again and say something about it. Arguing in circles about some tail was surely going to be the outcome of that, and, well… No thanks.

One time, in his attempts to hide from Yukino, he found himself in the cafeteria at lunch time. Usually he just sat in a corner of the classroom to eat, but, well… Yukino had decided to stick around that day and he wasn’t in the mood.

Too bad he wasn’t really in the mood to deal with Hidehiko, either. The guy was loud, boastful, seemed to like the spotlight… Reiji couldn’t really relate on any of those things, so being near the guy was usually a cause for headaches.

At least he seemed focused on eating some sorta meat, still attached to the bone. At least he’d probably be too busy eating that to even look in Reiji’s direction or try to talk to him. It looked like it was tough meat, after all--

He was thinking that until Hidehiko took a bite right through the entire thing, bone and all.

“What the actual fuck?”

Hidehiko turned to look at Reiji with a frown. “What’s wrong, Reiji? You look super freaked out, oh man… If you could see your face…”

“How the hell did you bite through the bone?” Reiji was still trying to process this all. “No way should someone be able to do that…”

He shook his head. “Uh, it’s not that shocking. It’s pretty average for guys like me. If you want to hear about some of the amazing, near-impossible things I do--”

Reiji rose a hand and shook his head. “I don’t give a shit.”

“Geez, you’re such a downer!” Hidehiko let out an exaggerated sigh as he shook his head. “Why even say anything?”

“You bit through a damn bone, you expect me to be quiet about it?” Reiji rose an eyebrow. What the hell was wrong with everyone at this school?

“Well, yeah. You shouldn’t be that shocked…” Hidehiko furrowed his brow. “The ladies were right, there’s something off about you.”

“Then maybe you should all just leave me alone.” 

And with that, he turned on his heel and left the cafeteria. He would just find somewhere else to hide and eat, then. These classmates of his were hard enough to deal with as is… Anymore of this would just be a headache waiting to happen.

Thanks to his apparent shit luck at avoiding interaction with his classmates, though. It wasn’t long after the Hidehiko incident that Kei ended up spilling his bottle of what Reiji always assumed was tomato juice all over him. It wasn’t really anyone’s fault when they slammed into each other in the doorway of the class, but…

Damn, tomato juice all over his chest wasn’t exactly fun. It was even less fun when he wiped some off with his finger and gave it a sniff. This… Wasn’t tomato juice. It was blood. Why the hell was Kei walking around with a bottle of blood?

“Ugh.” Kei put a hand up to his nose and mouth, as if trying to block the smell. “Don’t just sit there smelling it, go clean yourself off.”

“Excuse me? You’re the one who spilled it all over me!” Reiji barked, wiping a hand down his chest. “You should at least help, bastard.”

“Me trying to help you would be an issue for both of us.” Kei shook his head. “That smell is overwhelming, hurry up and go!”

Reiji scoffed, shaking his head. “I dunno why I expected anything different from you rich types…” He was gonna have to go clean himself off, it seemed… Rich people really couldn’t be relied on for anything.

Kei narrowed his eyes. “I don’t have time to argue with someone like you. The nurse should be able to help you clean that off quickly.”

Without another word, Kei turned on his heel and re-entered the classroom. Reiji was almost tempted to follow after him and push it a bit more, but another student saw him and dragged him to the nurse’s office with a gasp. Nurse Natsumi helped him clean it up and even set his jacket to soak (only a few places got any blood on it), but damn… What kind of kid drank blood?

He’d ask the nurse about it and she just gave him a pity filled look and a comment about his mom having ‘not told him yet’ or something. What, was there something going on at this school that his mother hadn’t mentioned? She’d said the school was a bit unique when he requested they move to the area, but she’d also said it’d be good for him with ‘how he was’...

This was all just confusing.

By that point, things were starting to build up in his head. There was something off about everyone, but he was still ready to ignore it. He had enough on his plate without worrying about mysteries of the school or something… Besides, unless things got  _ really  _ strange from here on out he could find ways to write it all off…

And then he saw Masao Inaba doing something along the lines of magic. He just sort of sat there and watched quietly for a few minutes. He thought if he did he’d be able to pick apart the technique, seeing as magic was something he practiced in his freetime himself… But nothing about it was familiar to him.

Maybe it was because Reiji was self taught? He might not be savvy to how the ‘correct’ techniques worked or something… Or maybe Masao was doing it in a way no one would even think of… It could be one or the other, right?

He just couldn’t figure out what else it could be, if he was being honest. Something supernatural, sure… But if he thought about it that way there’d be too much he’d have to put together. This, the other things he’d seen, Masao and some other classmates having odd skin colors that he’d assumed was some skin condition… So he just pushed that to the back of his head.

Instead he’d just walk by and, well, that almost worked. He was just unlucky enough that Masao reached out a hand, grabbing him by the arm. What, was he gonna ask Reiji what he thought of his magic tricks?

“You saw that, right? What do you think?” Yep…

“...It was interesting, I guess. You have interesting technique.” Reiji wanted to just shrug him off, but damn if Masao didn’t have an iron grip on his arm…

Masao furrowed his brow. “What do you mean?”

“You were doing a magic trick, right? I dunno how you made it look so realistic, but it’s interesting.” Reiji thought for a moment. “Now that I think about it, did a magic trick go wrong and that’s why your skin is all green?”

“Wha-- No!” Masao shook his head as he let go of Reiji. “What’s up with you? I thought I’d see how you reacted because of everyone else whispering about you, but…”

Reiji rolled his eyes. “But what?”

“Nothing. Just, damn dude…” Masao rubbed the back of his neck. “You don’t seem that bothered by rumors anyway, so there’s no reason to worry you.”

Reiji furrowed his brow. “Then don’t bring it up?”

“Sorry, sorry…” Masao turned away, his voice dropping to a mumble. “Looks like Mayuzumi might be onto something…”

Reiji decided against asking what Yukino was onto… It was sure to just give him a headache in the end, after all. Besides, most students who caused him trouble or seemed to have an interest in him were running out. Before he knew it, he’d be able to refocus himself totally.

He kept telling himself that that was the case, totally… He could just overlook everything that had happened before and he could overlook the fact Eriko had just dropped her pencil case and was picking it up with what looked like a taloned foot. Sure, he couldn’t exactly call those fancy shoes like he used to, but… Genetic conditions existed. Maybe this was just a weird one.

“You’re the transfer student…” Eriko tilted her head to the side when she noticed him staring. “Is there something wrong with my foot?”

Reiji shook his head, finally coming back to reality. “Uh, nothing. I just didn’t know you could pick up things with them…”

Eriko gave a giggle. “How silly! Why wouldn’t I be able to pick things up with something like these talons?”

“I guess I kinda assumed they were fake… I’ve assumed a lot of things were fake in this school, though…” He made a face. “Guess I’ve been wrong about a lot of things.”

“I see! How interesting… I wouldn’t think anyone going to this school would assume things like my talons were fake!” Eriko approached Reiji, letting her pencil case fall again. “Oh, being in a place like this while being blind to everything… How interesting! I envy your ability to go through this…”

“Envy…?” Reiji swallowed hard and shook his head. “I’m confused as all hell, how is that enviable?”

“Discovering everything would be such an adventure! But I already know what’s going on…” Eriko seemed to almost deflate for a moment before perking up again. “Reiji, if you have any questions, feel free to ask me!”

“Uh… Okay…” He wouldn’t be doing that. In fact, thinking about this or trying to figure out was seeming like a worse idea now… That might get Eriko to attach to his hip and would make things a lot harder for him now. “I’m leaving now.”

“Goodbye and good luck!” Eriko gave him a smile as he turned on his heel and walked away…

God, this all made him feel sick. Maybe he should go lay in the nurse’s office for a bit before gym class…

And that’s what he did. He stayed in there just as long as it should take for everyone else to change and head out before leaving. He’d use the time he spent changing and walking to the group to think things through…

At least that was his plan until he opened the door to the classroom and found Naoya still in the middle of changing. Just his luck that someone else would be around there, right? And it just had to be one of the guys who seemed like they could be a bother if he talked to Reiji.

“Oh, Kido!” Naoya blinked a few times. “Everyone thought you weren’t gonna show up for gym class.”

“Well, here I am.” Reiji stepped into the room and closed the door.

“Then we should change and head there together!” Naoya paused for a moment. “Oh, but would it be okay if I fully changed here?”

Narrowing his eyes, Reiji gave a small nod. He didn’t know exactly what Naoya meant, but, well… They were changing into their gym clothes, right? He didn’t see why he needed to ask before doing that--

Well, his thought process was totally thrown off as soon as he looked at Naoya and all the pieces finally forced themselves into place. Naoya was a werewolf, those ears and tail weren’t fake or anything… And Naoya wasn’t the only monster around, either. Everyone in the damn class, hell, in the damn school, were monsters…

“Kido, are you okay? You look really pale…” Naoya started towards him and he felt his vision going black. Last thing he really saw was Naoya basically pouncing at him and he couldn’t help but think he was going to die.

When he actually woke up, he couldn’t help but be kind of shocked. Maybe he’d dreamed that all up--

“Kido, you’re okay.” Reiji looked over and almost fainted again when he saw Naoya, all wolf-y, sitting next to the bed. Hell, he probably  _ would  _ have fainted if Naoya hadn’t backed off right after. “I don’t get it, though. You’re a werewolf too, aren’t you? Why’d you react so badly?”

“What the hell makes you think I’m a werewolf too?” He pulled himself into a sitting position, glaring daggers at Naoya. “I’m a human, dammit! I shouldn’t even be here…”

“A human…?” Naoya frowned before getting closer and sniffing at Reiji. “I definitely smell werewolf in you, though. It’s weaker than normal, but I just thought you weren’t the most impressive in the way of werewolf abilities.”

Reiji shook his head. “No way, I’m a human and so is my mother.”

“What about your father?”

Reiji opened his mouth before closing it again. He didn’t know much about his father past the fact he had been an utter bastard when he was alive… Maybe there was stuff about his genetics that he didn’t know. Stuff he’d need to ask his mom about later.

This was upsetting and, well, maybe it was obvious since Naoya put his head on Reiji’s lap as if attempting to cheer him up. If Reiji wasn’t thinking about the fact he might have something less human about him, he might’ve pushed him off and yelled at him… But instead he mindlessly petting the werewolf’s head as he thought about it. Maybe it would turn out to be a misunderstanding, maybe his mom was a quarter werewolf and he was only an eighth or something…

“Maybe I should’ve paid attention to the signs before…” He kept petting Naoya’s head as he mumbled to himself. “...Hopefully mom can explain this all.”

**Author's Note:**

> Reiji - Human (Half-Werewolf on his shit dad's side)  
> Naoya - Werewolf  
> Maki - Fairy  
> Masao - Goblin  
> Nanjo - Vampire  
> Brown - Werehyena  
> Elly - Harpy  
> Ayase - Succubus  
> Yukino - Werewolf
> 
>  
> 
> Also shoutout to my buddy dorkova/edgyearring/etc for helping me out. She knows monsters well and she's the real MVP for this fic.
> 
> Anyway... That's about it? Maybe I'll extend this into the other games too, who knows. Only time will tell, probably


End file.
